Is AT&T Really That Bad?

MastrMeatWad

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I have had them for a while myself and I think the whole anti-at&t thing is just internet meme now. It didn't help at&t any that the iPhone was arguably the worst mobile phone of all time. I often compared my old Nokia N95 to my old iPhone 3GS and it was night in day when it came to network performance.

Really the best way to find out if at&t will work for you is if you test drive it and do research. Find out which carrier has the low band spectrum (850 mhz or even the new 700mhz LTE spectrum) in your area. The 850 cellular licenses are old and relatively built out well while also providing good building penetration.
@fogel35- how do you find that info out, just calling?

If ATT is anything like Tmobile in my area I am stuck. Tmobile's coverage was horrific. I would love to make the move to ATT just to show Sprint they can suck it.
 

GG916

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So I have been over at the AT&T forums and it seams that there is a lot of unhappy folks over there, stating that AT&T has the worst coverage and worst customer service in all of wireless. Is this true or is there just a bunch of troll's trying to cause problems over there?
I've wondered the same thing about just how bad is AT&T since I'm considering moving to them from Sprint if Sprint continues to ignore WP. I think that the people with issues and problems with any company are more likely to air them out in the internet, while the people who don't have any problems don't have the need to post anything. Therefore, we ONLY see negative stuff.

On the Sprint forums and FB page, 99.9% of the posts are negative - yet I have no problems at all with them, except for the fact that they are not supporting the platform I want with new phones.
 

GG916

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@fogel35- how do you find that info out, just calling?

If ATT is anything like Tmobile in my area I am stuck. Tmobile's coverage was horrific. I would love to make the move to ATT just to show Sprint they can suck it.
T-Mobile is bad where I live too. I had to drop them when suddenly I wasn't getting service at my house and they couldn't tell me why. They let me out of my contract and I went with Sprint. I hope AT&T is as good as Sprint because I'm headed their way if Sprint continues to ignore WP.
 

mattx41

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All my friends that have AT&T, complain about speed and mostly coverage. I have Sprint...so...cant really relate. :/

BTW Sprint NEEDS to get their new WP7 or I'll move to Tmobile or ATT.
 

Winterfang

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All my friends that have AT&T, complain about speed and mostly coverage. I have Sprint...so...cant really relate. :/

BTW Sprint NEEDS to get their new WP7 or I'll move to Tmobile or ATT.

Got to hand it to AT&T they have more Windows Phones that the rest of their competition combined.
 

N8ter

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It really depends on how you use your phone. If they're good in your area, and you don't travel, then you're good.

If you travel across the country like me (1350+ mile travel), then Sprint and T-Mobile are out because their coverage simply isn't good enough. T-Mobile is good in areas where hardly anyone uses their network. In areas where their network sees high use, their 3G speeds are terrible. Like, really terrible... Full 3G signal:

wp000021i.jpg


That's because they don't have as good a network build-out as AT&T and Verizon. Sprint's network is also overloaded like ****. That is why their 3G speeds are absolutely terrible.

Verizon gets 4x the 3G speeds (on CDMA!) as T-Mobile does here. AT&T easily gets 6-10x those speeds or more on HSPA[+] devices. Sprint has WiMax here, but they aren't introducing anymore WiMax phones so the Photon 4G and Epic Touch 4G are the best phones you can get there with decent data speeds in this area...

AT&T also has much better customer service than T-Mobile and Sprint, from my experience with them. Not only are their phone reps and the reps on Facebook amazing, but they have their own warranty warehouses set up so you don't have to ship a phone to get it replaced. You can just walk in and get the best/cleanest replacement device they have and just swap your SIM card out. They also have no issues changing your device if the one you have keeps giving your issues/you keep having to replace it.
 

Winterfang

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T-Mobile is bad where I live too. I had to drop them when suddenly I wasn't getting service at my house and they couldn't tell me why. They let me out of my contract and I went with Sprint. I hope AT&T is as good as Sprint because I'm headed their way if Sprint continues to ignore WP.

Can you please answer me, how did they let you out of your contract? I like my carrier but I don't have signal at my job. This is affecting a lot and if I lose my job because of this I won't be able to pay them anyway. You think they could just let me out instead of me having to shell out 300+ dollars of my own money?
 

GG916

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Can you please answer me, how did they let you out of your contract? I like my carrier but I don't have signal at my job. This is affecting a lot and if I lose my job because of this I won't be able to pay them anyway. You think they could just let me out instead of me having to shell out 300+ dollars of my own money?
I was able to get out because my signal was fine where I lived for a couple of years then, after a storm, the signal was gone. For weeks they couldn't tell me why or if it would come back. When I would go in the store, other people were there who lived or worked in the same area and were having the same problem. Because they couldn't provide me with service I once had through them, they let me out.
 

phinner

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Thinking About Returning Myself...

T-Mobile is bad where I live too. I had to drop them when suddenly I wasn't getting service at my house and they couldn't tell me why. They let me out of my contract and I went with Sprint. I hope AT&T is as good as Sprint because I'm headed their way if Sprint continues to ignore WP.

I had AT&T since 1998 and switched to Sprint a little over 2 years ago for the unlimited data/any mobile to any mobile. I only had a couple of issues with AT&T's billing policies, but those were fairly quick to resolve. They do seem to have understanding CS reps that are very willing to help. Their call quality was on par with Sprint in that there was an occasional dropped call, but few and very far between. Reception in the Sacramento area was good as is with Sprint.

I'm with you, GG916, in that we are right on the verge of switching back to AT&T, also. No real complaints with Sprint, either, except for their lack of WP7 love. I'm out of contract now and waited patiently to see if they would announce any WP7 devices at the CES last week. Unfortunately, that was not to be - and I'm not sure I want to wait the 8 or 9 months only to be disappointed again.

I compared prices and with my employer's discount and Sprint's modified employer's discount on the family plan, the price is almost identical. Sure we'll have a 2GB limit per phone, but with WiFi I think we'll be fine with any increased usage. Since I have had Sprint, we have never went over the 2GB mark between all 4 phones on the plan, anyways. I'll wait until March, probably, to see (1) what the Lumia 900 price is and (2) if the Focus S price drops with the introduction of the Nokias.

I really don't see Sprint getting any WP7 phones in in the near future. And I can foresee them going to a tiered plan when they roll out the LTE. Unfortunately, for those still with Sprint, I doubt that they will grandfather the unlimited data after their current contracts run out. So, now is a good a time as any to make the switch.
 
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palandri

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Can you please answer me, how did they let you out of your contract? I like my carrier but I don't have signal at my job. This is affecting a lot and if I lose my job because of this I won't be able to pay them anyway. You think they could just let me out instead of me having to shell out 300+ dollars of my own money?

Just keep calling them and telling them the truth. Your phone doesn't get signal at work and that is unacceptable.
 

Winterfang

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I'll have to do that, even worse is that I work at a mall and there's 3 stores and 5 kiosk of that carrier in there, yet there's no signal or 3G =/.
 

JPDVM2014

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Sorry to dredge up a 2 month old thread, but I was about to ask this same question. Glad to see the mostly positive things to say. I have talked to people in my area ( southern rural NJ) with AT&T, and from what I can tell they have similar and sometimes better service than I get with verizon.
 

InfectedPhreak

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I had AT&T since Cingular for quite awhile, it was only 2 years ago that my family switched to Verizon. Lately, I've been kind of regretting it but can't look back. Never really had an issue with AT&T as far as I can recall. We switched to Verizon because a lot of people around here had it, and it just felt like it was time to finally make the jump.
 

pfe1223

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My HTC Titan has some issues. Some would be addressed with the 8107 update, others not. Turns out HTC has released two firmware updates. These stand a much better chance of fixing the terrible call quality. AT&T refuses to push out these updates. In my opinion, this is a huge black mark against them. I am liking more and more my Titan, but I don't want these issues to linger. No single update will fix everything. If WP wants to keep me as a customer, then they need to do their best to give the best user experience they can. AT&T is actively preventing this.
 

JPDVM2014

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True, but it is better than having just the HTC Trophy. I still haven't gotten the keyboard fix either, and I don't have any way to upgrade without going to android. If it turns out Verizon is actually supporting WP 2 years from April 8th, I'll reconsider switching back. But in the meantime, I have no issues forcing updates if/when it comes to that with the Lumia 900. I'm just glad to see some positives here. Most of the Internet is super negative about AT&T. But, honestly, the only carrier I don't see bashed too much is T-Mobile. Which I would be going with except for the fact that I would get close to zero service at most of the places I frequent.
 

power5

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Not had too much coverage problems or dropping calls. Only thing pissing me off to the point of about to leave is that they will not releaseupdates when available for anything but th damn iPhone. Day apple puts update online iPhones can get it via iTunes. Not sure if that circumvents the att monopoly somehow, but if so, Zune needs to do same for WP updates. I want my keyboard to stay and I want my damn VVM already. I don't want to go back to a tiny iPhone after my titan but at least I could use all th features the phone has. Never in my 3 years with an iPhone was I denied OS updates. Why is that?
 

pfe1223

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Not had too much coverage problems or dropping calls. Only thing pissing me off to the point of about to leave is that they will not releaseupdates when available for anything but th damn iPhone. Day apple puts update online iPhones can get it via iTunes. Not sure if that circumvents the att monopoly somehow, but if so, Zune needs to do same for WP updates. I want my keyboard to stay and I want my damn VVM already. I don't want to go back to a tiny iPhone after my titan but at least I could use all th features the phone has. Never in my 3 years with an iPhone was I denied OS updates. Why is that?

Same here. I like my Titan more and more, but the problems (which will remain until updates are released) are.giving.me second thought. It is not as simple as switching to the Focus S. I hate AT&T right now. Got a week or so to return my Titan. Just might do it.
 

JPDVM2014

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Yea, not getting updates does suck, hopefully they will release whatever is after 8107. It would be cumulative so the keyboard problem would be fixed. Among other things. At least there is a little hope, i gave up on getting the update on Verizon a long time ago. Luckily my keyboard isn't too bad.
 

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